As Carrie and I made our way through the city toward the center where I thought the Queen would have made a nest, we kept our eyes open for any Scourge that might have attacked and made things difficult for us. Good thing we did too.

"I thought Kongs were solitary," Carrie complained as we watched the four-armed gorilla mostrosities make their way toward us.

"They are. I don't understand why there are three of them," I told her as we watched one pick up a car. "Looks like we're not avoiding this. Be careful."

Before she could answer, the Kong with the car had thrown it at us and we were forced to dive to the sides to avoid it. I rolled to my feet in time to take a kick from the one that had charged me and get sent flying for my troubles. I needed to get back to the fight before they surrounded and killed Carrie.

With more agility than I realized I had, I managed to land on my feet and pulled two hatchets from my back, I'd dropped my sword somewhere in flight and I didn't have time to find it.

I threw the explosive hatchet as I charged closer and managed to knock one of the Kongs to the side, an arm blown off and the other one mangled badly from the blast. With a roar it moved to meet my charge and I pulled another hatchet from my back and raced to meet it.

As we came closer to one another, I used the cars in front of me to gain height and jumped so that I arced over the Kong and was able to send my two hatchets into its back. They weren't explosive or the fight would have ended there, but I wasn't too worried at this moment. I had opened my firing line toward the other two Kongs that were beating on Carrie's shield and battering her across the street. I reached for one more explosive hatchet and threw it at the closer Kong that was trying to pummel Carrie. My hatchet caught it in the gap where its upper arm and lower arm both entered the chest and the explosive destroyed the entire left side of its torso. One down.

I didn't have time to celebrate my victory over the Kong before I was grabbed and thrown into the closest building by the one I'd wounded earlier. I wasn't hurt much from the impact with a brick wall and the steel pipes that ran through it, but I was disoriented enough to not dodge the car it managed to heave through the hole in the wall and pin me to the opposite side of the store space I had been thrown into.

Slowly, with its chest heaving from the exertion, the Kong pushed its way into the store and eyed me where I was pinned to the wall across from it. I knew it couldn't see my face but I smiled at it and pushed the car away from me and opened room for me to move away from the wall. With another roar it charged at me with a limp on the side missing an arm and I drew two more hatchets. I needed to land a hit in the head and I needed it to be deep enough to hit gray matter, otherwise I was stuck here until Carrie finished with her dance partner outside. I didn't have anymore explosive hatchets.

Before the Kong could get to me, a sharp crack rang out and its head jerked to the side and it fell to the ground. When it managed to rise, I could see that one of its eyes was gone with a hole in its place. Before it could bellow or charge at me again, I was cleaving down with my hatchets and burying them into its skull as deeply as I could. I watched as it jerked one last time before falling to the ground, limp and dead.

"I hate Kongs," I sighed as I started to look around for the source of the gunshot that had taken out the Kong's eye. Gunshots meant survivors, and that meant I'd have someone who could give me more information about where the Queen might have made a nest.

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"Hello!" I called out hoping they would answer me. "Whoever you are, thanks for the help. I have some questions and I can make sure you get out of here. I can't help you if you don't show yourself."

I stood there for a moment, looking in the direction the shot had been fired from, when Carrie walked in.

"You dropped something, Commander," she said, handing me my sword. "Who you talking to?"

"Someone shot the Kong's eye out," I told her. "I'm trying to get them to show themselves since we can all help one another."

"Well, did you try taking your helmet off?" she asked.

"What?" I had forgotten that I was wearing one and what it had on it.

"Men." I heard her mutter before she was disconnecting her helmet from her suit and removing it.

"Hello," she called. "I'm Carrie and this is Rickshaw. He won't bite, come on out and we can help one another."

I sighed at her words and moved to remove my own helmet. If the sight of the seven foot two girl with neon green hair streaked with dark blue wasn't weird enough, then maybe the seven foot five man with more normal hair color would help. When no one answered, I started in the expected direction of the shooter when they spoke.

"Stay right there," a man's voice sounded. "What the hell are you two? Why the hell are you here?"

"I'm Rickshaw James," I told the man. "I am the Demigod within the Nephilim Army and my Principality and I are here searching for any signs of the Scourge Queen and its offspring."

"What the hell's a Principality and a Demigod doing on the ground?" the man asked, now I knew where he was. "You sound damn important, like generals and colonels do in the army. Shouldn't you be back at home riding a desk?"

"Desk jockeying isn't my style," I told him. "Could you come out and speak to us face to face please? I don't like having to speak to the air and hoping you'll answer."

"I think I'll stay right here," he said. "I don't trust you two not to treat me the way you treated that big bastard on the ground and his friends."

"Seriously?" Carrie asked before I could say anything to the man. "Rickshaw may not be the best people person, but even he wouldn't treat a human like a Scourge and kill them."

"Thanks Carrie, that doesn't make it sound like I have issues at all," I muttered low enough for her to hear. She just grinned at me.

"Can you at least answer some questions of ours?" I asked the man.

"I guess I could so long as you and the girl answer some of mine," he answered. Great, twenty questions.

"Have you noticed any Scourge gathering in certain areas? There'd be a lot of different ones, and they'd all be well-behaved there, even if they were hostile everywhere else," I asked.

"Nope, can't think of anywhere like that," the man said. "How'd you get so damn big? You look human enough, but you're both too damn tall to be natural."

"Rude," Carrie muttered.

"We were born human and then we signed up for alien drugs to be injected," I told him. "How many other survivors have you seen?"

"None of your business," he said immediately. I guess he was hiding something. "Were you telling the truth about being able to get me out of here?"

"I was," I told him. "You and anyone else that needs it. The more people we save, the better our odds of rebuilding later are. What's your name?"

"Eric," he answered. "I'll be making my way back to my people and tell them about you all. How can I get in touch with you?"

"If you find one of my squads out there, then just make contact and they'll help," I told him. "If not, then you just find a working radio or phone and dial zero ten times. I'll get the message and pick up."

"You might try over by the old library, it's been shut up and covered in construction stuff for months now while the council tries to remodel it. Seen a bunch of those Scourge things moving over there."

"Thanks," I said and recieved no answer.

"Well, I think he's gone," Carrie said. "Do you think his name's really Eric?"

"Why does that matter?" I asked as I pulled my helmet back on and moved to pick up my non-explosive hatchets.

"Just seems kind of funny," she answered. "We've got Matthew Eriks and if this guy's named Eric Matthews, I'd laugh forever."

"I don't think his name is Eric Matthews," I told her. "I don't think Eric is even his real name."

"That sucks," Carrie said before walking out of the almost destroyed store.